The Indians have owned the Rays for so long, I suppose we were due for a disappointing game like this one.
Danny Salazar entered the day with 5.20 ERA, but had generally pitched better than the overall results. His 3.54 FIP was actually lower than his rate from the 2016 season, indicating a good amount of bad luck had caused his ERA to inflate during the early-season small sample size.
But on Tuesday, Salazar’s performance lived up to his poor early-season numbers.
The Rays roughed up Salazar for three home runs (two by Corey Dickerson) and knocked him out of the game after surrendering five runs in five innings.
Salazar gave up four Barrels (three home runs and double)—he had allowed just eight through his first seven starts. That’s a pretty good indication that Salazar simply didn’t have his best stuff today and the Rays were clearly taking advantage of some favorable pitches.
Adding to the disappointment was Bradley Zimmer’s dud of a debut. In three plate appearances Zimmer struck out all three times, making him the first Indians position player to record three strikeouts in his MLB debut since Ralph Winegarner in 1930.
It was a disappointing start for Zimmer, but it’s important to keep in mind that the Indians probably didn’t want to call him up just yet. With the sudden rash of injuries to the outfield, they were forced to make the move and there’s a good chance he’ll be sent back down eventually.
While Zimmer’s bat projects as an asset to the lineup in the long term, he’s probably just here for his defense right now. The Tribe has suffered through some brutal defense in center field this year between Tyler Naquin and Lonnie Chisenhall. Zimmer isn’t going to remind anyone of Kenny Lofton, but he should offer an upgrade over the defense we’ve seen out there the past two seasons.
Other thoughts and notes…
Zach McAllister tossed two scoreless innings of relief, dropping his ERA to 1.08. His high walk rate is still a concern, but he continues to be an asset as the fourth or fifth option in the bullpen. His performance really underscores the remarkable depth the Tribe has out there. McAllister would be a 7th or 8th inning setup man for a lot of teams, but he’s almost an afterthought in the bullpen in Cleveland.
The Indians announced that Mike Clevinger would start on Saturday against Houston, but he came out of the bullpen today. He only threw three pitches, so I assume he can still go on Saturday, but the fact that they used him at all makes me wonder if that plan may have changed. It certainly wasn’t a situation where they were forced to go to him.
It’s time to stop using strikeouts as a way to judge pitchers the way we used to. Broadcasters were talking about how Salazar still had good stuff because he racked up nine strikeouts—but that’s just not true in today’s game anymore, especially against the Rays. Tampa is on pace to break the all-time strikeout record (they’re averaging more than 10 per game), so even with very mediocre stuff, a pitcher like Salazar will record a fair amount of strikeouts. It just doesn’t require great stuff to get 8-10 strikeouts in a game anymore.
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